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Chester, city, United States

(Encyclopedia)Chester, city (2020 pop. 32,605), Delaware co., SE Pa., on the Delaware River south of Philadelphia; settled c.1644 by Swedes, inc. as a city 1866. A po...

figurehead

(Encyclopedia)figurehead, carved decoration usually representing a head or figure placed under the bowsprit of a ship. The art is of extreme antiquity. Ancient galleys and triremes carried rostrums, or beaks, on th...

Ermoupolis

(Encyclopedia)Ermoupolis, Hermoupolis sēˈrôs [key], city, capital of Cyclades prefecture, SE Greece, on the east coast ...

icebreaker

(Encyclopedia)icebreaker, ship of special hull design and wide beam, with relatively flat bottom, designed to force its way through ice. When the icebreaker charges into the ice at full speed, its sharply inclined ...

Herreshoff, John Brown

(Encyclopedia)Herreshoff, John Brown hĕrˈəs-hŏf [key], 1841–1915, American yacht and ship builder. Though totally blind from the time he was 15, he managed his own sail-boat building company until his brother...

Gray, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Gray, Robert, 1755–1806, American sea captain, discoverer of the Columbia River, b. Tiverton, R.I. He probably served in the Continental navy in the American Revolution. In 1787 he and Capt. John Ke...

Núñez Vela, Blasco

(Encyclopedia)Núñez Vela, Blasco bläˈskō no͞oˈnyās vāˈlä [key], d. 1546, first viceroy of Peru (1544–46). Sent to replace Vaca de Castro and to enforce the New Laws of Bartolomé de Las Casas, he had a...

McKay, Donald

(Encyclopedia)McKay, Donald məkāˈ, məkīˈ [key], 1810–80, American shipbuilder, b. Nova Scotia. He opened his own shipyard in Newburyport, Mass., in 1841, then moved to Boston in 1845. He grew celebrated as ...

Argus

(Encyclopedia)Argus ärˈgŏs, –gəs [key], in Greek mythology. 1 Many-eyed monster, also called Panoptes. He guarded Io after she had been changed into a heifer. After Hermes slew the monster, Hera took his eyes...

Kittery

(Encyclopedia)Kittery kĭtˈərē [key], town (1990 pop. 9,372), York co., extreme SW Maine, at the mouth of the Piscataqua River opposite Portsmouth, N.H.; inc. 1647. Its economy centers around tourism and the Por...